Photography Adventure - Lightning Storm

It's a good thing that Tuesday night is 35 cent wing night and buy one get one on appetizer after 10 pm at Buffalo Wild Wings. That kept us out late so we saw the storm hit on our way home. It was great. Lightning blasted across the sky so the "chase" was on. I shot home, loaded up equipment and went looking for a great spot. All the while the storm raged. I had the spot in mind. Last Sunday I took the long way to Arnold by mistake, and along the way I noticed a clearing for a new subdivision, with one massive impressive tree left standing. I wanted that tree in this lightning shot. The only bad part was that it was midnight, very dark, and the rain was coming down in droves over my car. So visibility was pretty bad. I had to drive slow but that wasn't a problem because I seemed to be the only one out in the storm that night. Eventually I found the tree, and parked across the street, far enough away for my wide angle to get the tree in and enough of the sky to catch a bolt or two. Now the hard part. Rolling down the window without damaging the gear. I had to wait for the hail to stop, luckily there was only a little of that. Then I set up the camera in the middle of the car, extended the lens enough to see past the window frame, and let my seat get wet, but not the camera. Using bulb mode I kept shooting loooonggggg exposures. At some points the rain was lighter than others, and when it started pouring extremely hard I rolled up the window and took some shots through the side window (stop cringing). The odd thing is of all the shots I got one through the window added another dimension to the shot that made it more interesting.

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